Handcuffed woman breaks loose, steals sheriff’s cruiser

How could a handcuffed woman suspect in the back seat of a sheriff’s patrol car escape her restraints and steal the car?

That’s what investigators were trying to figure out Saturday.

The handcuffed suspect, who was sitting in the back seat of the car with a handcuffed male suspect, managed to get one of her hands free and escape from the back of the patrol car. She then managed to climb into the driver’s seat and take off in the now-stolen vehicle.

But it didn’t come to a good end for her as the car crashed in West Hills before she and the male suspect were arrested.

It was unclear why the suspects were detained about 6:05 p.m. Friday in the area of Roscoe Boulevard and Saticoy Street, Sgt. Dan Nagelmann of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s Malibu/Lost Hills Station said.

Once behind the wheel, the female suspect drove the cruiser about a quarter-mile south on Saticoy until the cruiser rear-ended another vehicle with a family inside about five minutes later near the intersection of Ingomar Street, Nagelmann said.

The suspects fled but were quickly apprehended by Los Angeles police, Nagelmann said.

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The rear-ended vehicle careened into a parked car and then struck a utility pole. Its occupants complained of pain, but none was taken to a hospital, Nagelmann said.

The male suspect was taken to a hospital for treatment of unspecified injuries, Officer Drake Madison of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Media Relations Division said.